Say no to Government Income Management - Stuart Highway

Protest: Bankstown Station North Side - March to Centrelink
Friday, 23 August 2013 - 3pm

Speakers include:
Lee Rhiannon, Greens Senator for NSW
Barbara Shaw, Aboriginal leader from Alice Springs living on Income Management
Paddy Gibson, Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney (STICS)
Stuart Highway, former resident of Darin, living there on Income Management

Income management is a destructive, racist policy currently being forced on struggling people in Bankstown and other “trial sites” across Australia.

The system quarantines 50 per cent of the Centrelink payments of certain groups. These funds can not be accessed as cash and can only be spent on certain items at government approved stores.

Income management was first forced on Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory as part of the NT Intervention. This required the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act. Now Bankstown is also being targeted as the only “trial site” in NSW.

In Bankstown, the scheme is being rolled out to young people going through hard times. Youth who are “unable to live at home” because of abuse and young people exiting prison are being forced onto income management. Centrelink social workers also have the power to put anyone on income management who they deem to be “vulnerable to financial crisis”.